"I don't even know what that is,'' he said Friday at Pebble Beach. Did he hear anything about the Internet phenomenon associated with him? "Not once, because the people here are nice people,'' he said.

"A lot of people are very mean-spirited, apparently,'' Berman said. He later added, "You're talking about something that happened nine years ago, some people want to dump on a guy that's been pretty nice to people for 27 years.''

Berman goes from denying any awareness of the phrase to acknowledging it as pointing out how "mean-spirited" people are. We find that sad; we've said all along that Berman has nothing to be ashamed of from the phrase, even if it did "happen nine years ago." Being nice to people for 27 years and pulling out that pickup line nine years ago ... these things are not mutually exclusive. We mean not to be mean-spirited; as always, sir, we only mean to salute you, and your prowess.